It did not look like a day for flying. Seattle had been consumed by a dark grey sky and heavy showers. This is no issue for typical travel on a Boeing 737, but on this day, there was a group of boys anticipating a flight with a view. Lucky for the 7 students, the weather cleared and it turned into a beautiful, crisp Seattle evening. Treehouse for Kids teamed up with Kenmore Air to provide a memorable night in the sky.

The stage was set at the Kenmore Air harbor on south Lake Union. If you have been in Seattle for any length of time, you have probably seen the buzzing, yellow sea planes that come and go with splash and spray. The students met with the Seattle Works Men’s group at Kenmore Air ready to…eat.

One of the leaders commented, “This is going to be great, for a lot of people it will be their first time flying.” To which one of the boys responded, “Yep, this is a first for me, eating a sub sandwich off the trunk of a BMW.”

So the boys prepared for the flight by consuming a couple dozen subway sandwiches. The 10 passenger plane sat and waited. The lake was calm. The sun was shining. The quote of the trip had been spoken. “We should fly to another state. I wonder if it looks like it does on a map- can you see the whole United States?”

The flight did not disappoint. The boy’s nervous excitement quickly turned into pure excitement. The sea plane cruised over Gasworks Park, Fremont, Ballard, and Discovery Park. They had a great view of West Seattle over the Sound. The plane looped back and flew close to the Space Needle before heading north along Lake Washington. The plane splashed down on the north end of Lake Washington at Kenmore Air’s harbor with big grins all around.

Here’s a fun fact that you may or may not know about nonprofit boards – board members have fiduciary responsibility, which means if something goes down, their personal finances could be named in a lawsuit.

If you are on a board or thinking about joining one, it’s important to know whether your organization is protecting you. Enter Directors’ & Officers’ Insurance! Does your organization carry D&O, or do they have another risk management solution in place?

Like this handy article says, most nonprofits will never get sued and yet “Every nonprofit must work diligently to recruit and retain suitable board leaders. One strategy is to address the potential for personal liability by taking steps that substantially reduce the likelihood that a board member’s personal assets will be exposed to loss.”

Useful article, whether you’re a nonprofit board board member, a business leader thinking about making a cross-sector job switch, or a nonprofit employee who occasionally scratches your head at your for-profit employed volunteers…

For the second year, we’ve had the opportunity to select a Seattle Works volunteer to be honored by the Governor and the Seattle Mariners during National Volunteer Week. This year we are thrilled to honor Thomas Buford!

Thomas is the captain of one of our longest-running Team Works teams, currently known as the “A Team”, originally known as team “New to Seattle”. He started as a program participant in early 2007, promptly stepped up to lead that same year and has inspired his teammates to serve on a monthly basis ever since. This fall, he and his wife Laura have traveled to Peru on one of our service trips and set the example for creating community.

An enthusiastic ambassador for Seattle Works, he has also been a champion for several of our fundraising and outreach campaigns. Not only did he team up with a group of long-time volunteers to form Seattle Works Day 2009’s SWAT Team, one of our largest groups, he was also the first person to successfully recruit 20 people give a donation of $20 or more to Seattle Works during our 20th anniversary fundraising campaign.

We’ll be celebrating Thomas, and volunteers from across the community, at the Mariner’s Salute to Volunteers Night – Tues 4/20. Tickets are just $8 and we’ll have a whole Seattle Works section. Join us! http://tinyurl.com/marinersregistration

THANK YOU THOMAS, for all you have done and continue to do for Seattle Works, and our community as a whole.